Journalist Nunurai Jena threatened and barred from ZANU PF Conference 

On 16 October 2026, freelance journalist Nunurai Jena was barred from entering Chinhoyi University of Technology (CUT), where the 23rd ZANU PF Annual People’s Conference is taking place. 

According to Jena, this occurred despite his holding valid party-issued accreditation. At Gate No. 1, he presented his official ZANU PF press accreditation card for digital scanning. Security officials informed him that the card was registered as “unfounded” in their system.

He was directed to a second security gate to rescan the card, which produced the same technical result. Security personnel then accused him of forging the credentials and demanded to know where he had “manufactured” the card. Jena maintained that the credential had been officially issued to him at ZANU PF Headquarters in Harare the previous week. 

For about 45 minutes, security officers questioned him and recorded his personal details on an official form. During the questioning, officers asserted that he “should know why” he was unwelcome at ZANU PF activities.

When asked why accreditation had been granted in the first place, security personnel said the card had been “issued in error.” They said they were “rectifying the situation” by confiscating the accreditation card and ejecting him from the event.

After the interrogation, Jena’s ZANU PF-issued accreditation card was confiscated, and he was escorted to CUT’s main gate. Security officers ordered him to leave immediately and warned him not to return, explicitly stating that failure to comply would result in undisclosed “worst consequences.”